Alessandro Mendini Early "Poltrona di Proust" 1980 Painted fabric, painted wood. 42 7/8 x 40 1/2 x 35 1/2 in. (108.9 x 102.9 x 90.2 cm) Hand-painted by Francesco Migliaccio. Together with a certificate of authenticity from Alessandro Mendini
Provenance Acquired directly from Dilmos SRL, Milan, 1980 Literature Barbara Radice, Elogio del banale, Milan, 1980, front cover Andrea Branzi The Hot House: Italian New Wave Design, Cambridge, 1984, p. 123, fig. 321 Albrecht Bangert Italian Furniture Design: Ideas Styles Movements, Munich, 1988, pp. 63, 65, 116 Giampiero Bosoni, il Modo Italiano: Italian Design and Avant-garde in the 20th Century, exh. cat., The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Quebec, 2007, p. 345 Glenn Adamson and Jane Pavitt eds., Postmodernism: Style and Subversion, 1970–1990, exh. cat., The Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 2011, p. 41 Catalogue Essay Alessandro Mendini designed his "Poltrona di Proust" for the 1978 "Room of the Century" exhibition at Palazzo dei Diamanti in Ferrara, Italy. Mendini based his design on an 18th-century Rococo-style armchair which he purchased in the Veneto and which was subsequently hand-painted by Prospero Rasulo and Pier Antonio Volpini. Together the two artists executed the first four or five examples of "Proust" by projecting a Paul Signac painting onto each chair and hand-painting over the patterns. The wood and upholstery of the chair functioned as both canvas and frame for the pointillist painting. As such, these early examples of "Proust" are unique and reflect the attitudes of each painter. Only very early chairs adhere to the pattern and pallete determined by the original Signac painting. Over time five different painters produced chairs and their decorations deviated significantly from that original template, with the appearance of the chairs increasingly determined by the painters themselves. The present lot is among the earliest examples of "Poltrona di Proust" painted in 1980 by Francesco Migliaccio, who succeeded Prospero Rasulo and Pier Antonio Volpini. The present chair is therefore one the very first of these "aesthetic bombs" to explode the modernist orthodoxy of functionalism. Read More
Alessandro Mendini Early "Poltrona di Proust" 1980 Painted fabric, painted wood. 42 7/8 x 40 1/2 x 35 1/2 in. (108.9 x 102.9 x 90.2 cm) Hand-painted by Francesco Migliaccio. Together with a certificate of authenticity from Alessandro Mendini
Provenance Acquired directly from Dilmos SRL, Milan, 1980 Literature Barbara Radice, Elogio del banale, Milan, 1980, front cover Andrea Branzi The Hot House: Italian New Wave Design, Cambridge, 1984, p. 123, fig. 321 Albrecht Bangert Italian Furniture Design: Ideas Styles Movements, Munich, 1988, pp. 63, 65, 116 Giampiero Bosoni, il Modo Italiano: Italian Design and Avant-garde in the 20th Century, exh. cat., The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Quebec, 2007, p. 345 Glenn Adamson and Jane Pavitt eds., Postmodernism: Style and Subversion, 1970–1990, exh. cat., The Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 2011, p. 41 Catalogue Essay Alessandro Mendini designed his "Poltrona di Proust" for the 1978 "Room of the Century" exhibition at Palazzo dei Diamanti in Ferrara, Italy. Mendini based his design on an 18th-century Rococo-style armchair which he purchased in the Veneto and which was subsequently hand-painted by Prospero Rasulo and Pier Antonio Volpini. Together the two artists executed the first four or five examples of "Proust" by projecting a Paul Signac painting onto each chair and hand-painting over the patterns. The wood and upholstery of the chair functioned as both canvas and frame for the pointillist painting. As such, these early examples of "Proust" are unique and reflect the attitudes of each painter. Only very early chairs adhere to the pattern and pallete determined by the original Signac painting. Over time five different painters produced chairs and their decorations deviated significantly from that original template, with the appearance of the chairs increasingly determined by the painters themselves. The present lot is among the earliest examples of "Poltrona di Proust" painted in 1980 by Francesco Migliaccio, who succeeded Prospero Rasulo and Pier Antonio Volpini. The present chair is therefore one the very first of these "aesthetic bombs" to explode the modernist orthodoxy of functionalism. Read More
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.jpg "Source: Christie's")
.jpg "Source: Christie's")
